China's export volume of seamless steel pipes has been mainly determined by the international market, with the prices at least 20 percent higher than the domestic level, having no concern with dumping or export subsidies from the government.

This remark of Kong Lingming, head of the Steel Pipe Department under China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), suggests that recent anti-dumping claims on China's seamless steel pipes by some countries only aim to pass over their domestic problems.

---- Alleged dumping charges on Chinese seamless steel pipes

On October 6, the European Commission decided to slap five-year duties on steel pipe imported from China, with the tariffs from 17.7 percent up to 39.2 percent as a punishment to Chinese exporters for allegedly selling seamless pipes below cost in the EU.

On October 7, the United States International Trade Commission announced to have initiated anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into seamless steel pipes imported from China. The U.S. petitioners requested a 98.37-percent anti-dumping duty against the Chinese imports and additional countervailing duties to offset what they allege are Chinese government subsidies.

On November 4, Argentina unexpectedly started anti-dumping investigation into imports of seamless steel pipes and welded pipes from China.

"Argentina is only following suit, because it only imports a very small volume from China," said an analyst with information provider MySteel.com.

China exported altogether 21,000 tons of seamless steel pipes to Argentina in January-September this year, with a total value of 33.5 million US dollars, and 414 tons of welded pipes valuing 350,000 US dollars. The total steel exports to Argentina amounted to only 30,000 tons, valuing 46.9 million US dollars.

---- The U.S. and EU as the largest two importers from China

The United States and European Union are the top two importers of China's seamless steel pipes. In January-September this year, China exported altogether 460,000 tons of seamless steel pipes to the U.S. and EU, 20 percent of the total exports.

According to statistics from China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the U.S. imported 355,000 tons of seamless steel pipes from China in January-September, 40 percent of the total steel imports from China, while the year 2008 saw 2.29 million tons of seamless steel pipes exported to the U.S. from China, up to 45.7 percent of the total.

Analysts worry that the investigation of U.S. will do great harm to China's seamless steel pipes exports.

The current hardships facing the U.S. steel industry were because consumption and demand waned after the financial crisis. "Blindly blaming Chinese imports of dumping or subsidies is lack of factual bases, which China strongly opposes," China Ministry of Commerce stated on its website.

---- Slipping exports of China's seamless steel pipes

According to NBS statistics, China produced 15.45 million tons of seamless steel pipes in January-September, 15.3 percent of which were exported, equivalent to 2.362 million tons with a value of 3.345 billion US dollars.
However, in 2008, China's seamless steel pipes exports totaled 6.09 million tons, 30.18 percent of the country's total output of 20.18 million tons.

According to MySteel.com data, in January-September this year, the top five importers of seamless steel pipes from China were the U.S. (355,000 tons), EU (104,000 tons), Algeria (288,000 tons), India (200,000 tons) and Singapore (125,000 tons).

In 2008, the top five importers of seamless steel pipes from China were the U.S. (2.29 million tons), EU (500,000 tons), South Korea (316,000 tons), Algeria (294,000 tons) and India (260,000 tons).